Energy Risk Awards 2021: The winners

Winners showcase the innovative thinking that's supporting the energy transition

The past 18 months might well be remembered by many energy risk managers as one of the most daunting and demanding periods in their career. During the first half of 2020, the priority for firms was understanding their immediate exposures amid the volatility and demand shock caused by Covid-19, as well as trying to gain a short-term insight into how prices might move. However, even before national lockdowns had eased, a seismic shift was taking place in the world’s response to climate change. As the energy transition accelerated to the top of company agendas, an appetite grew for much longer-term analysis and risk assessment, far beyond the usual time horizons analysed by energy risk managers.

Coping with such unprecedented, global-scale issues – both very short- and very long-term – required an array of tried and tested risk management techniques, but also clear, innovative thinking and new approaches.

The winners of this year’s Energy Risk awards demonstrate best practice in risk management throughout the commodities complex. They are also pushing the boundaries and shaping the energy and commodity markets. This is more important than ever as the industry responds to the energy transition.

The articles below on each of the winning firms are full of examples of innovation, with many of our winners achieving things that have never been done before. For example, our innovation of the year award has been won by Baringa Partners and Tesco Treasury for the first series of merchant power purchase agreements to be carried out in the UK. The winner of this year’s newcomer of the year award, Tramontana Asset Management, has created a pioneering investment vehicle that brings new capital to the carbon markets and offers corporates an efficient way to hedge their forward carbon exposure. Another of our winners, Macquarie Bank, has facilitated what it believes is the world’s first shipment of carbon-neutral oil. Like all ground-breaking projects, these initiatives had no blueprints to follow, making them extremely challenging to bring to fruition.

The 2021 awards received a greater number of entries into the four climate-related categories – climate risk manager, climate risk advisory firm, emissions house of the year and environmental products house of the year – than ever before. These categories were won by Engie, The Climate Service, Element Markets and BNP Paribas, respectively. However, even outside these categories, most entries included a strong emphasis on environment, climate risk and sustainability.  

BNP Paribas’ winning entry for base metals house of the year, for example, centred on the use of metals to achieve the energy transition, while Societe Generale’s winning entry for energy and commodity finance house of the year, included an array of deals that are helping to bring about the energy transition. Technology firms also have their part to play in helping the industry shift into becoming a low carbon sector. For example, CubeLogic, winner of this year’s technology firm of the year award, has added functionality around carbon and transition risk to its traditional set of credit risk tools. 

“Traditional ways of assessing the credit or market risk of companies is changing as the world transitions to the low carbon economy,” says Lee Campbell, CubeLogic’s founder and chief executive. “It’s no longer sufficient to look only at balance sheets and management structure, you also need to look at things such as corporate behaviour and ESG (environmental, social and governance) strategy.”  

Navigating climate risk and these nascent environmental markets is not easy. All our winners show extreme determination, patience and belief in their firm’s ethos and capabilities. We believe they are helping the energy industry take its first steps on what is a crucial and transformative journey.

See the winners below:

Climate risk manager of the year
Engie

Newcomer of the year
Tramontana Asset Management

Climate risk advisory firm of the year
The Climate Service

Base metals house of the year
BNP Paribas

Emissions house of the year
Element Markets

Innovation of the year
Baringa and Tesco Treasury

Environmental products house of the year
BNP Paribas

Energy technology firm of the year
CubeLogic

Technology advisory of the year
KWA Analytics

Hedging advisory of the year
Aegis Hedging Solutions

Data management house of the year
ZE Power Group

Data and analytics house of the year
Mobius Risk Group

Commodities research house of the year
Refinitiv

Commodity exchange of the year
Nodal Exchange

Commodity brokerage of the year
Marex

OTC Trading platform of the year
BNP Paribas’ Cortex CD

CTRM software house of the year
Enuit

Commodity finance house of the year
Societe Generale

Oil and products house of the year
Macquarie Group

Precious metals house of the year
Credit Suisse

Corporate risk manager of the year
Socar Turkey

Deal of the year
Sempra LNG

Weather house of the year
Marex

Derivatives house of the year
Macquarie Bank

Electricity house of the year
Engie

Natural gas/LNG house of the year
Engie